Exposed: Dogs Skinned Alive for Leather

The first thing the undercover investigator noticed was the overpowering smell of death. The filthy slaughterhouse floor was covered with blood and guts. Dog carcasses hung on hooks. This is the Chinese dog-leather industry.

Chinese leather is regularly sold in Australia, so if you use leather, there is simply no way of knowing whose skin you are wearing, carrying or sitting on. As you’ll see in the video footage taken during PETA Asia’s undercover investigation in eastern China, the cruelty is almost unimaginable.

One dog after another is grabbed around the neck with metal pincers and bashed over the head with a wooden pole. Some fall unconscious, while others cry out and writhe in agony from severe head trauma. Some still struggle to breathe after their throats are cut. Finally, their skins are ripped right off. Dogs who are next in line for slaughter wail and bark as a worker hits them while leading them to the kill floor.

One worker is seen skinning the dogs, while another guts them. A dog slaughterer told PETA Asia’s investigator that the facility bludgeons and skins between 100 and 200 dogs a day. About 300 dogs are held in the compound, and some can be seen frantically climbing over one another in an attempt to escape the packed holding chamber. Although the dog-meat industry in China is well known, this is the first time PETA Asia has captured the production of Chinese dog leather on camera.

The investigator also documented that dog skin was turned into women’s fashion gloves, men’s work gloves and other products that are exported around the world to be sold to unsuspecting customers. If you wouldn’t wear leather from a dog, you shouldn’t wear skin from any animal, including a cow!